Topic: Nintendo Free Radio 24: A Wonderful 190

[Shaymin]

Including the best possible treatment of KIRBY'S EPIC YARN
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Not even Reggie's body is ready for the amount of game discussion on this week's show. New Business opens with Stephen's extended, indepth impressions of the biggest game to come out the week of September 17... The Wonderful 101. Austen loves him some Puppeteer and Killzone Mercenary, but if you're looking for crime from him, how about a little GATV available in Saints Row 4? Donald brings the representation from the handheld side with the indie Vita (and PS3, but we don't talk about that) RPG Dragon Fantasy Book II and wraps back around to an early 3DS contender for Game of the Year, Fire Emblem Awakening.

In Whatcha Watchin, the updates continue as Stephen finishes off MasterChef, and Austen delivers on a promise from last episode with The Legend of Korra while checking on a recent Ghibli import, From Up On Poppy Hill. Donald goes to the extremes of anime with the mysterious Paranoia Agent and the... how does one describe Gurren Lagann?

The Feature discussion is a series of topics featuring one theme: Chaos in the land of the rising sun. Subjects touched on include the passing of Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Sony announcements including Vita TV and Vita2000, Sega x Atlus and, uh, Tetris and Puyo Puyo being a good combo? The Mushrooms bring it home with our general love/hate relationship with SquareEnix and social interaction in general - and stay tuned after the outro for quick Steam Controller impressions.

Until next time... UNITE UP!!

This podcast was edited by Donald Theriault. All music and clips used under fair use and for discussion purposes only. Female vocals provided by Jessica (Stephen's wife).

[azeke]

You can remove armour from the robot faster simply using a bigger whip. There is also special states where robot becomes especially vulnerable -- this works for all enemies.

I never encountered the problem with multi unite failing because i don't have the specific character, because:
1) i'm not a big multi unite user, it eats way too much gauge to be useful outside of very special uses
2) when i am using multi unite i am usually picking different weapon for multi because that way i can combine effects of the multiple weapons instead of just going two swords that simple multiplies damage
3) game places characters is such a way that when you're introduced to the a new main Wonderful one in the beginning of a operation, during this operation you're basically gonna be swamped with more and more heroes all wielding the same weapon you just got. That happens until you have full set about half way into the game.

Sword is not powerful at all. It's one the weaker ones even. It does have a very useful area attack and is extremely easy to draw which help for spamming multi unite morphs when you just want to dispense ridiculous damage in extremely short amount of time which kills your gauge but gets the job done. Fist and Hammer are the most powerful. Fist is especially versatile because hammer is too slow.

Many people don't like that level where you're limited with only your main crew. What they've missed is that the first encounter gives you a possibility to replenish your forces by stealing little enemy dudes that robots keep summoning. You just need to wait and not kill them for a while until they transport enough little dudes and then you start hitting and recruiting them for yourself. They totally mean for you to do that, because time limit for pure platinum for this mission is very lax -- it's about three times longer than you usually get to finish just two middle sized robots.

I usually get my group to at least 20 or so guys and that is more than enough to get through and even do some odd multi unite here and there.

Gun is very useful for getting platinum and pure platinum ranks because as long as you're shooting your combo stays and it increases your multiplier. Also most bosses are vulnerable to regular weapon only at certain times, in all other times you're supposed to keep shooting them -- this way you keep damaging them non-stop. Their range is basically unlimited so at times they're the only weapon that is available.

After playing W101 for 80+ hours i find the most useless weapon to be... whip. Outside of it special ability to remove spikes it's pretty much jack of all trades, master of none. It's overmatched by gun and sword in range, and way overmatched by fist and hammer by damage. It feels like they HAD to introduce spikes mechanic simply to justify using the whip.

About the maglev stage: it had two tutorial screens prefacing it, one to explain controls and second one to show them that they CAN and should use Unite Morphs to counter attack enemies during this segment. If Brad and Vinny didn't figure out you can simply shoot the enemies and their rockets, well... And you're allowed to take a lot of damage during this, most of it goes to ship's own damage bar. The game has an achievement for doing no-damage run on this section and it's quite tricky to do, but it's completely doable.

Ahaha, i spent 40 minutes trying to get through that stadium vestibule first time.

[Ceric]

I mention in the show that Hammer and Fist are stronger then Sword but, what I found playing through is that the developers really wanted sword to be used.  Their are just some enemies that uniting 2 swords makes a log of sense.  Best example being the Crab guy.  The sword takes out his knees, for lack of a better term, quicker then any of the others.

A lot of bosses its obvious your suppose to just keep shooting them with the gun as white damage.  Which makes for a slow fight.  When you get the bow its just so much more powerful if you don't need the homing and don't have items to shoot and the boomerang its sort of ridiculous how many of those you can have stacking at a time.

I do agree that the whip is mostly just a utility weapon.  I think that weapon could have been saved by adding a grouping mechanic to it where you could russle in enemies together and slightly bind them.

Back to the sword real quick I still find it the best secondary unite.  The Hand just doesn't have enough range to make it effective.  The Gun to few shots.  Whip is the Whip.  Hammer same as the gun its one hit and their done.  Sword stays out for a good amount and makes it more forgiving and easier to initiate hit and runs, blob guys.  Honestly wish the Hammer when used split up was more like the Sword and Fist.  Good range good power.  Which is probably why its not.  On the turtles I wish I could be dropping a group with a Hammer and then me with a Hammer when dodging in for a hit but I can't seem to pull off the drawing to do that.

On the Spike guy I assumed a bigger whip be faster and always draw it huge but he stills takes forever compared to his non-spike counter parts.

On the Fist, when I can use it its great but its pretty short range.  I also wish that if you knocked a character back with the fist they do collision damage like if they were thrown.  Also that instead of only Using the Gun to shoot back items on the field you could use the fist to knock them at the enemy as an alternative.

[azeke]

Their are just some enemies that uniting 2 swords makes a log of sense.  Best example being the Crab guy.  The sword takes out his knees, for lack of a better term, quicker then any of the others.

I just use Claws against crabs and don't switch to anything else. Claws can fly in the air a little which is useful to reach his mouth and later his knees and then to jump on his back.

Which makes for a slow fight.

Boss levels should take 10-15 minutes or less if you're not missing QTEs. Including possible flight or whatever mission before the boss and/or after.

The Hand just doesn't have enough range to make it effective.

Bomb+Fist is godly. As long you can inhibit their movement either with bomb or climb attack or hero time -- three hits with medium sized fist is a great damager.

On the Spike guy I assumed a bigger whip be faster and always draw it huge but he stills takes forever compared to his non-spike counter parts.

It usually takes 10 seconds (20 tops) for me to remove spiked armour completely. As i said robots are super vulnerable when they're spinning in the air preparing their attack -- one slash with the whip will put them in staggered mode. Then i stop hitting and Unite Charge my whip to the max. Biggest whip when staggered removes their armour in one hit.

[AnGer]

Are there spoilers concerning Paranoia Agent? Because I've never finished it, but liked what I saw and I'm curious about what Donald has to say about it.

[Shaymin]

I'd finish it first since there's mild-yet-obvious spoilers for the last episode. 5 and 8 get spoiled as well.